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Getting Math Chops Back Up

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Owen Densmore

Getting Math Chops Back Up

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Having been a Physicist years ago, I'd gotten fairly proficient in
Math. But having spent a career in technology, I've gotten quite
rusty. So I'm looking for getting my math skills back on line.

I've found a few interesting books that are reviews of most of
undergraduate math:

Mathematical Techniques D. W. Jordan, Peter Smith
http://tinyurl.com/dz5qw

All the Mathematics You Missed : But Need to Know for Graduate School
Thomas A. Garrity
http://tinyurl.com/98rsm

Math Refresher for Scientists and Engineers John R. Fanchi
http://tinyurl.com/c6ybw

These are all quite good in their own unique ways.

Does anyone else have hints for getting back online? Doesn't have to
be a single book, a series would be fine. Even on-line courses could
work. But alas, Santa Fe, though great for complexity and great
folks, has no university that would help. Maybe Albuquerque's UNM?

Thanks!

-- Owen

Owen Densmore
http://backspaces.net - http://redfish.com - http://friam.org

Russell Standish

Getting Math Chops Back Up

Thanks for these links - not for myself, as I have kept my
mathematical machinery reasonably well oiled, but for the readers of
my book. I demand a certain amount of mathematical facility from them
(hopefully only high school level), but it would be good to point them
at free internet resources for when they feel inadequate.

Any further ideas greatly appreciated. I find wikipedia also useful.

Cheers

On Sat, Oct 08, 2005 at 03:07:02PM -0600, Owen Densmore wrote:

> Having been a Physicist years ago, I'd gotten fairly proficient in
> Math. But having spent a career in technology, I've gotten quite
> rusty. So I'm looking for getting my math skills back on line.
>
> I've found a few interesting books that are reviews of most of
> undergraduate math:
>
> Mathematical Techniques D. W. Jordan, Peter Smith
> http://tinyurl.com/dz5qw
>
> All the Mathematics You Missed : But Need to Know for Graduate School
> Thomas A. Garrity
> http://tinyurl.com/98rsm
>
> Math Refresher for Scientists and Engineers John R. Fanchi
> http://tinyurl.com/c6ybw
>
> These are all quite good in their own unique ways.
>
> Does anyone else have hints for getting back online? Doesn't have to
> be a single book, a series would be fine. Even on-line courses could
> work. But alas, Santa Fe, though great for complexity and great
> folks, has no university that would help. Maybe Albuquerque's UNM?
>
> Thanks!
>
> -- Owen
>
> Owen Densmore
> http://backspaces.net - http://redfish.com - http://friam.org
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9:30a-11:30 at ad hoc locations
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org

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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 8308 3119 (mobile)
Mathematics 0425 253119 (")
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 R.Standish at unsw.edu.au
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Martin C. Martin

Getting Math Chops Back Up

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Owen Densmore wrote:
> Having been a Physicist years ago, I'd gotten fairly proficient in
> Math. But having spent a career in technology, I've gotten quite
> rusty. So I'm looking for getting my math skills back on line.
>
...
>
> Does anyone else have hints for getting back online?

Same thing I'd suggest for programming: pick a project and do it with
the math you're relearning. Almost as good would be to do the problems
at the end of the chapters. You don't really learn the stuff until you
have to use it. So, maybe re-read some of your old physics texts, and
do a physics problem or two that will exercise your math skills.

Just my two cents,
Martin

Tom Carter

Getting Math Chops Back Up

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Owen -

One approach is to try taking yourself in some particular (new)
direction, that is likely to push you to have (relevant) "better Math
chops" in order to understand the stuff . . . When you get stuck,
back up and find an appropriate source for the particular item at hand.

Part of the difficulty is that traditional "mathematical
maturity" (e.g., Calc I, II, III, ODE, PDE, Linear Algebra, Prob./
Stats., Complex Variables . . .) may not really be what's necessary
in particular for the specifics at issue . . .

I've been working my way through Bernt Oksendal's "Stochastic
Differential Equations," and N.V. Krylov's "Introduction to the
Theory of Random Processes" . . .

A related approach is to work through a book that just casually
uses a bunch of relevant maths, where they can be seen in context. I
like Hamming's "Coding and Information Theory", Rieke (et al.)
"Spikes" (particularly the appendix stuff), Denny and Gaines'
"Chance in Biology," and Bar-Yam's "Dynamics of Complex
Systems" (full text online at http://necsi.org/publications/dcs/ )
as examples . . .

tom

On Oct 8, 2005, at 2:07 PM, Owen Densmore wrote:

Roger Frye-2

Getting Math Chops Back Up

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Of course it all depends on what you want to do with math.
I liked Garrity's book -- it covers lots of ground and entices you to
learn more.

I am reading
Roger Penrose
The Road to Reality

It claims to teach you all the math you need (starting with Pythhagorean
theorem and logs) in order to understand all of the modern physics
theories including quantum field and strings. I don't actually like it
because of his insistent Platonism, but it is entertaining.

Another route is Eric Weisstein's Mathworld and another is Maple or
Mathematica.
-Roger

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 15:07:02 -0600, Owen Densmore <owen at backspaces.net>
wrote: